Vi's cave of bad choices

M. Virion

Bent but unbroken
Citizen
Well we're back, at long last, and when we last left off I was going to start up a new review topic, I hope I'm not disappointing too many in not doing pancakes, but after everything that has happened, I've decided I really want to review something in my own wheelhouse, and that I have passion for.

As such, beginning in October, once per week, I'm going to be reviewing the foam dart blasters in my and Doc's collection. I thought that could be interesting, it's a geeky-ish hobby that's pretty adjacent to Transformers, Hasbro makes the primary 'name-brand' in the industry and there's a number of competitors making - honestly some much better products these days than the name-brand.

So join in me in about 2 weeks when we'll start off with one of the NERF blaster that reignited my love for the hobby earlier this year. We'll be looking at the NERF/Dungeons and Dragons crossover blaster, The Emberstrike.

My current plan is to start with a NERF review, and then branch off to the major competitors as an introduction, then introducing some of the other ammo types that are on the market, and finally moving to a grab-bag style selection process.
 
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MEDdMI

Nonstop Baaka
Citizen
Nice! I'm curious to know if any of them would be good for cat toys. My smaller cat likes chasing down stuff. I tried a cheap off brand one but that was awful loud. Now I have a cheaper simple air popper that launches balls, but I keep losing the ammo and I can't find replacement ammo specific to that brand.
 

M. Virion

Bent but unbroken
Citizen
Well I am hoping to do some fps (feet per second) readings on at least some of it, and strongly recommend staying away from anything too high powered because you will get very loud pops from the stronger springs.

I'll try to give some noise impressions with my reviews of that would help.
 

The Doctor Who

Now With Sheffield Steel!
Citizen
I'll happily do video clips of them to upload to YouTube if anyone wants demonstrations.
 

M. Virion

Bent but unbroken
Citizen
My IMMEDIATE thought is the hero blaster from Five Below. I don't have one and don't plan on reviewing it, but I recently watched a review and it was hitting around 35 fps, which is half the current industry baseline of 70 fps. It works also be a cheaper option.

American Foam did the review, I case you'd like to see it.

 

M. Virion

Bent but unbroken
Citizen
Today was a great blaster find day. A 40 dollar blaster for $4, and a clearanced flywheel blaster for $7.
 

M. Virion

Bent but unbroken
Citizen
Half of our collection are thrift store acquisitions, lol.

Goodwill is a Nerf collectors best friend.
 

Wheelimus

Administrator
Staff member
Council of Elders
Citizen
I wish Goodwill was a Transformers collectors best friend. Sadness. It's been a decade since I've scored.
 

jonfromtheIRS

only person to ever like ReLoad by Metallica
Citizen
i wish i had a goodwill nearby so i could have a vulcan that actually works
 

M. Virion

Bent but unbroken
Citizen
We've found 2 vulcans in the last week, but both were missing necessary parts, and one had a bent/broken prime lever. We did however find an original working Nerf Star Wars rebel trooper blaster from 2006. So that was pretty sweet.
 

The Doctor Who

Now With Sheffield Steel!
Citizen
We've also found a surprising number of Rival blasters at Goodwill. We've gotten two Apollos and a Charger for dirt cheap.
 


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